Art Ensemble of Chicago - Full Force (ECM, 1980)

This post is by Scott

Lester Bowie (tr); Joseph Jarman (sopranino s, ss, as, ts, bs b-sax, cl, b-cl, bn, pic, fl, vib, cel, whistle, perc, vo); Roscoe Mitchell (ss, as, ts, bs, b-sax, cl, fl, pic, perc); Malachi Favors Maghostus (b, perc, mel, vo); Famoudou Don Moye (d, perc, vo)

Recorded in January 1980

Full Force was the Art Ensemble's second album for Manfred Eicher's ECM label, after Nice Guys, recorded in May 1978.  As author Ted Panken noted in Downbeat in 2018, the move to ECM was notable because "ECM’s state-of-the-art production values are palpable on the recordings from 1978 to 1985. As Paul Steinbeck observes in his 2017 book, Message To Our Folks (University of Chicago Press), audio engineer Martin Wieland 'accurately captures the Art Ensemble’s unique sound spectrum while bringing out nuances in the high frequency range that had been neglected on the band’s earlier recordings.' Steinbeck quotes AEC percussionist, Famoudou Don Moye, as saying, 'It sounds like us.'"

Of course, sonic fidelity is always secondary to the music itself. And, in this case, the music is extraordinary.  

From this listener's perspective, the high point of Full Force is the opening cut, "Magg Zelma," Malachi Favors' 20-minute composition. Aside from Roscoe Mitchell's "Care Free," which clocks in at an Anton Webern-like 45 seconds (!), "Magg Zelma" filled the entire first side of the LP, and it morphs continuously and kaleidoscopically, ranging across styles, tempos, structures, and moods. The cumulative effect is powerful, like a single-movement, all-embracing, trippy symphony.